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In company clusters, the proximity between the agents in a common socioeconomic context
can facilitate relationships among companies and between those companies and other actors
(clients, suppliers, universities, associations, etc.), creating spaces for the exchange of
knowledge and information, and fomenting the learning process. This process is intertemporal
and cumulative, helping to enable those companies to incorporate innovations. In
view of this context, the main objective of this work was to ascertain whether the different
forms of learning (learning by using, learning by doing, and learning by interacting)
contribute to the introduction of innovations (commercial, organizational, institutional and
technological) by the small companies inserted in production clusters. We hypothesize that
learning by interaction is the form that most favors the introduction of innovations on the part
of small companies inserted in production clusters. This research is qualitative; hence, it is an
exploratory study. The focus of our analysis is the case of the garment sector s LPC (local
production cluster) in Cianorte, state of Paraná, Brazil. To achieve the proposed objective, a
multicase study was made of four garment producers established in this city. The data
collection technique consisted of a bibliographic review, documental analyses, notes taken at
meetings of the Cianorte LPC, and nonstructured interviews with employees of the four
companies whose activities involved the adoption of innovations. Our findings do not confirm
the initial hypothesis, indicating, instead, that learning by using contributes the most toward
the introduction of innovations. Moreover, learning by interaction could represent a greater
contribution if the local businessmen were to engage in joint actions aimed at achieving
collective gains for the cluster.